#jack darby

tfp headcanons ( in which the kids get some time to grow up before joining unit: e, also because i forgot that existed while writing this )

• raf’s the first one to move on.
• he’s nearly died once, and he’s just supposed to forget that he did? it feels like it never happened.
• bee was his only friend, so raf was crushed when he left. but he’s grown up a little more now, and he’s determined to try and live a normal life.
• the next time someone bullies him, he stands up for himself. and surprisingly, he wins a fight. his parents don’t recognize him anymore. subtly and quietly, he’s changing.
• he stops talking to nearly everyone. it’s something he doesn’t notice, but raf’s even quieter now. he listens to the sounds nobody hears, and communicates in his own way.
• there’s a girl in his grade who tries to befriend him. like him, she waits and listens. it’s a while before he’s ready to talk about his trauma, but he’s healing.
• raf scores straight As and his parents couldn’t be prouder of him, but he’s not proud of himself. nothing will ever be the same again, and that’s okay.
• he wishes bee were here to see it.
• miko can’t get over bulkhead leaving, or wheeljack. she might have accepted her parents leaving her alone, but not them.
• she shoves her electric guitar in a corner of her room and covers it with an old blanket.
• it feels like watching bulkhead die all over again. but this time, he’s not coming back. she understands, but it hurts.
• so miko picks up her history textbook, and studies. she continues to find ancient relic sites, and has her research in a smash monkey notebook. when the time comes again, she’ll be ready.
• miko nakadai never goes to detention again. in some ways, she’s trying to do bulkhead proud. she hopes he remembers her even if he’s never coming back, because she will.
• she fixes things with her host parents and her parents and apologises for giving them a hard time. miko even goes to tokyo during summer break to visit her real family. she’s trying, and it counts for something.
• everything feels normal again, but there’s an emptiness miko can’t seem to shake. a yearning to go back to being a part of team prime.
• jack’s the last to come to terms with everything. it’s ironic; he was the first to try and leave, but now, he’s reluctant to let go.
• he gets fired from the fast food joint for missing too many shifts. jack works at a parts store, repairing broken bikes and wishing he could feel like a hero again.
• sierra asks him what happened to his bike. he tells her his bike left, and won’t be coming back for a long time. they get fries and drinks and talk about school.
• his mom cuts him a lot of slack. when he comes back home, flopping on the couch with tears in his eyes, she tells him a story about the day her husband left nevada and never looked back. she’s been there before.
• jack declines whenever someone asks him to go camping. there’s an unspoken fear in his eyes that worries sierra. he says he’s afraid of spiders, but she knows it goes deeper than that.
• a while later, vinny befriends jack. he won’t forget that he saved him that night. he apologises for being a jerk, and jack forgives him.
• fowler becomes a part of the family, and to jack, he’s a reminder that he went on all those adventures. he’s like the father he never had.
• jack haunts the nevada base. he sits on the abandoned railing like a ghost, staring at the huge, blank screen. he misses watching it light up and ratchet working it.
• the base feels bigger now that he’s alone. so he walks the corridors with a broken pipe piece in hand, but nothing happens. for once, everything is /quiet/.
• there’s a strange feeling when he looks up at the ceiling. it feels like optimus is still there, telling him he’s proud of him.
• it should be impossible. but if there’s one thing jack’s learned while with team prime, is that nothing ever is impossible.
• he finds the matrix of leadership in the back pocket of his jeans. he doesn’t know how it got there, but it is; a promise of a final adventure. almost as if it knew he needed it.
• he switches on all the lights and paints a mural on the walls of team prime. optimus, bumblebee, arcee, bulkhead, ratchet, wheeljack, ultra magnus, smokescreen, jack, miko and raf, fowler and june.
• it’s his own little secret, because he isn’t sure anyone will understand. ( june does, and she suspected he was going there from the amount of paint cans he bought )
• sierra finds him there one night when she knocked on his front door, and june told her where he might be. somehow, she’s less surprised at knowing his secret than he thought.
• jack tells her the story, starting from the beginning. sierra listens, and sees jack in a new light. when he finally stops talking, she holds his hand, and they sit in silence admiring jack’s mural.
• the familiar hum of his mother’s car pulls into the base as raf, miko, june, and fowler get out of the car. they’re all stunned by the mural ( who knew jack was an artist ? )
• miko and raf run up to hug jack. sierra joins in, along with fowler and june. they’re a family, whether they realise it or not.
• fowler decides its time for them to come on board officially. after all, he knows how much they miss it.
• it feels like coming home.

witchysolfan:

Honestly the most unrealistic thing in Transformers Prime’s canon is Miko being a foreign exchange Student with how she behaves.

If maybe the show gave some more indicators of how she behaves differently when in the presence of other adults and that she only really lets loose in the presence of her friends, that would’ve added to her character. Like suddenly she’s the most polite, well behaved, soft spoken kid ever and how could she possibly be a wild thing?

It could also be a funny cute bit of Jack asking Miko “Who are you and what have you done with our Miko?”

Miko just looks at him and Raf and sticks her tongue out at them.

Jack and Raf sticks their tongues out back and it’s just a funny bit of them being friends laughing together.

It also shows that Miko feels comfortable and trusts them to not put on a fake mask around them.

I have to agree with this. Miko seems more of an American kid rather than a foreign exchange student from Japan.

It would have been nice to hear Miko speak Japanese when she was really excited or super aggravated. It could have made a nice bonding moment for the kids to trade languages because nothing’s more cool than leaning new curse words in a foreign language.

Or have the kids talk about the differences between Japan and the US, especially culture, food, and education. Where’s the confusion over Americanisms and the pizza-that-must-be-avoided-at-all-costs? The variety/minimal club options? An off-hand comment that detentions don’t fazed her: Do homework? Already done. Easy. Have to clean a classroom? No problem she’s used to cleaning a student responsibility in Japan. That includes toilets. Have to stay after-school? No sweat, back at home she stayed after school for club activities and took public transport back to her place.